RALEIGH – There’s a reason you might not know Joe Shimko.
His success in NC State Football comes from staying out of the spotlight — staying invisible through perfection. The fact that the average fan doesn’t know his name means he’s doing his job.
This is the life of a longshot.
But Shimko’s efficiency in his position has gradually earned him recognition. In his fourth season with the Wolfpack, Shimko has never been responsible for a bad shot with 174 punts and 180 field goals and extra points.
That’s 354 perfect snaps over three years and 4,050 yards — 15 yards per punt, eight for FGs and XPs — that a football walking out of his hands has streaked clean. That summer, Shimko was the only NC State player to be named on Phil Steele’s 2022 Preseason All-American First Team.
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Perfection has finally been recognized.
“Long snaps were never something I saw a future in until I realized what kind of future I could have,” Shimko told the USA TODAY Network. “It became my path to going to college and playing in the NFL.”
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Become something special in a special position
Shimko became disillusioned with the sport when he began his sophomore year at Wall Township High School in New Jersey.
His love of baseball began to fade, and while he was interested in the physicality of football as a running back and linebacker, several minor injuries made him question whether he wanted to continue.
“I knew football wasn’t going to last forever, but I wasn’t even sure how I was going to last,” Shimko said.
It was his father, Rob, who asked him an important question over dinner one night.
“Did you know that long snappers can last 10 years or more in the NFL?”
Rob had found a football camp specifically for Long Snapper hosted by Chris Rubio, known for developing the position and recruiting and signing players. Since 2010, Rubio has helped over 1,000 snappers earn full scholarships.
“Let’s try,” Shimko said.
They already had a perfect backyard for long catch practice. Years earlier, his father had cleared trees around the property to make room for a large batting cage and pitching machine. No matter what sport Shimko played, his father did his best to support that passion – his way of showing love and making up for lost time.
Working as a union electrician had kept Rob busy for the first 10 years of Shimko’s life. Birthdays and holidays were sometimes skipped, but that was his best way of getting food on the table.
Shimko saw the pain his father endured in a job that required a lot of physical labor and the pressure it put on his mother. From a young age, he decided that he would make enough money to keep them all together.
“Whatever I needed, he was always down,” Shimko said. “I was never mad at him because he had to travel a lot for work, if any I’m proud that he was willing to work so hard to give us everything we needed. I’m grateful for that and I’ve learned a lot.”
That winter he attended his first long snapper camp and quickly recognized the competition for the position. Most had started their education in middle school, and he was miles behind the best. Shimko traveled to Las Vegas for a national event later that year and placed 80th out of 100 competitors in the Class of 2018.
Good. Not good.
The summer before his son’s junior year, Shimko’s father was inspired by a golf documentary in which the golf instructor told the golfer to hit 200 golf balls a day to improve his muscle memory.
“We will do that,” he said to Shimko.
For the next two months, the two worked together in the backyard every day and grew closer as Shimko steadily improved. Shimko would hit 200 punts and 200 field goals every day until his arms and neck were sore.
He learned to position his torso so that he could straighten his legs during a snap. He started doing yoga to improve his flexibility and added weight to his 5-foot-10, 180-pound frame. Shimko is currently 6-0, 225 pounds.
“I seriously took off there,” he said. “In the world of snapshots, it’s not really common to do that many reps, but I had to do it to make up for lost time.”
Shimko began his junior year as a long snapper at varsity and began to climb the Rubio rankings. He went from 80th to 4th in less than a year.
Why Shimko chose NC State
When recruiting, Shimko put in a similar amount of work to make his decision.
His father bought him a large notebook with alphabetical dividers and gave him a task: write down every Division I school in the country, the top 100 Division II schools, and the top three Division III schools; Complete each questionnaire, noting the names of all head coaches and special team coaches.
Shimko stretches his thumb and forefinger out as far as he can.
“I had a folder about this size full of information about each school,” he said, laughing.
NC State initially didn’t make the cut. He planned to major in exercise science, something that was not offered at Raleigh.
It was Doug Shearer, the Wolfpack’s former special teams quality control assistant, who reached out to Shimko and said if he attended their camp, he had a chance at a full scholarship.
An hour into the camp, it was Coach Dave Doeren who personally offered him the scholarship. Shimko signed on a week later.
“Coach Doeren really made it clear that he really understands the importance of special teams,” said Shimko. “He really respected what I was able to do and to see how much he cared for him really made the difference.”
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This respect has been shown in recent years.
Wolfpack field kicker Christopher Dunn, returning into his fifth season, is the school’s all-time leader in points and field goals scored. Trent Gill was the first-team All-ACC punter in 2021 before declaring the NFL. Doeren quickly found his replacement in Shane McDonough, a Towson transfer who averaged 40.4 yards on 46 punts and a 72 long last season.
Earlier this week, NC State received an acceptance letter from Aiden Arias, a 2023 five-star long snapper from Florida.
“Doeren always talks about winning all three stages of the game and that includes special teams,” Shimko said. “We understand how important we are to the success of this team.”
David Thompson is an award-winning reporter for the USA Today Network, covering NC State and Duke athletics. He can be reached at [email protected], at 828-231-1747 or on Twitter at @daveth89.